You are here

The flooding of Europe by countless waves of refugees may be the result of the “strategic depopulation” of Syria carried out by opponents of the country’s government, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has suggested.

Transparency organization WikiLeaks has looked through its diplomatic cables and unearthed “an interesting speculation about the refugee movement,” Assange said in an interview with Geek news site, ThePressProject.“So, the speculation was this: Occasionally opponents of a country would engage in strategic depopulation, which is to decrease the fighting capacity of a government,” he explained.

The whistleblower pointed out that “it’s predominantly the middle class that is fleeing” Syria on account of having “language skills, money, some connections.” Engineers, managers and civil servants are “precisely, the classes that ...[are] needed to keep the government functioning,” he said.

Syrian people are encouraged to flee their country “by Germany saying they’ll accept many-many refugees, and by Turkey taking nearly three million refugees, thus significantly weakening the Syrian government,” Assange stressed.

Syria isn’t the only case of migration being used as a weapon in recent history; during the Iraq War, Sweden told the US that “the acceptance of Iraqi refugees was part of its contribution,” according to cables.

The WikiLeaks founder said that it’s a “disgrace” that the US refuses to take in Syrian refuges because it’s Washington who should be held accountable for the hundreds of thousands of people arriving in Europe and making EU states close its borders with one other.

“The situation comes about as a result of the US, UK and French policy in the Middle East together with the behavior of US regional allies in the Middle East – Qatar, Turkey, Jordan and Israel… and Saudi Arabia,” he said.
The intercepted documents, already published by WikiLeaks, revealed that the US had been plotting to overthrow the Syrian government since around 2006, Assange stressed.

“It was trying to make the Syrian government ‘paranoid’ trying to get it to ‘overreact’ by instilling that fear and paranoia; trying to make it worried about coups; trying to stir up sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shias … trying to stop foreign investment in Syria and secretly funding a variety of NGOs in Syria also to make trouble, using the Saudis and Egypt to help push that along,” he said.

Meanwhile any of Assad’s attempts to battle terrorism and the expansion of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) strength were presented as a demonstration of weakness and “an example of [the] Syrian government not having full control over its territory to encourage the government overthrow,” the whistleblower added.

Comments

Thousands of people have arrived in Europe in recent months in what experts have called the worst refugee crisis since World War II. Back at the end of World War 2, the global population was 2.66 billion people. Now, it's surging up to 8, 9, 10 billion, and our planet is overflowing with humanity.

The lack of new discoveries, of new places to colonize, combined with record numbers of refugees, illustrates just how over-crowded our planet is.

Recent figures from the U.N. and other aid organizations, however, have shown that the majority of people arriving in Europe often come from upper middle class, well-educated backgrounds. Many of the refugees living in camps in Lesbos, Greece had smartphones. At least a few people could speak English on every boat arriving to Lesbos, meaning that many of them likely had a formal education. All told, Syrians tell a story of a country, devastated by four years of punishing war, that is now being depopulated of its educated middle class. With Syrian refugees trying to enter European countries, questions have been raised over why they are not heading to wealthy Gulf states closer to home.

Officially, Syrians can apply for a tourist visa or work permit in order to enter a Gulf state. Syrians are required to obtain rarely granted visas to enter almost all Arab countries. The entitlement that Europe will offer refuge is due to the UN, but there's no pressure on the Gulf States? These states have more of a duty than Europe towards Syrians suffering from over four years of conflict and the emergence of jihadist groups in the country.

Cables revealed by Julian Assange suggest that “Encouraging [them] to flee Syria by Germany saying they will accept many-many refugees, and by Turkey taking nearly three million refugees thus significantly weakens the Syrian government,” Assange stressed adding that “regardless of whether there is a design behind it the forces engaged in trying to overthrow the Syrian government must be happy with the results.”